Ethiopia has one of the richest histories in Africa. It is mentioned in the Bible, and the prophet Mohammad fled into exile there.

The beauty of Ethiopian women has been legendary since the times of King Solomon when the Queen of Sheba visited him in search of wisdom. According to Ethiopian legend, the Queen later gave birth to a son, Ibn-al-Malik (known as Menelik), the founder of the Ethiopian Dynasty.

The country was never colonised by a European power, but was occupied by the Italians in 1936. There are remains of Italian influence in the country: The magnificent bathtubs, the jacuzzis, and the furniture in the hotels.

Athletics is synonymous with Ethiopia; locals revere their own athletes as well as those from other countries.

“How is Paul Tergat doing? Is he a great man in your country?” they often asked me.

The language of the Amharas, Amharic, has been written for more than 3,000 years; today it is the official language, taught in schools. Newspapers, radio and the only TV station all use Amharic as the language of communication. They also learn English, but only at Advanced Level and the universities.

There are two major religions — the majority Christians and the minority Muslims. Among Christians, there are the Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant denominations.

I admired the Orthodox followers, the men and women dressed in white flowing robes; the women also had their heads covered. I noticed that whenever we drove past an Orthodox church, our driver Allihu would make the sign of the cross two times.

“What’s that for?” I asked. “You must make the sign of the cross every time you pass an Orthodox church, if you are Orthodox,” he said.

The following Sunday, I went for a stroll up the road. “Salamno,” I called out in greeting to a shoe shiner by the side of the road. “Salamno,” he replied. I sat down for a talk, and he said how much he would love to come with me to Kenya.

Farther along the road, a young man greeted me in English, and said he was a tour guide. “How much would that cost me?” I asked.

“For the whole day, you will pay me 90 Birr ($4.4),” he said. I didn’t need to be shown around for the whole day — 54 Birr ($2.6) would be ok, I said.

The young man narrated how they defeated the Italians in war. “The warrior who led the war was from Amhara region,” he said.

He then took me to see the statue of Emperor Menelik II, in the public park. As we went on, we came across the Orthodox church. The shape of an Orthodox church is similar to a mosque, but a mosque has a moon atop the dome while the Orthodox Church has a cross at the top.

“I would like to worship here today,” I told my guide. “Are you a Christian?” he asked. I said I was. But he said that in Ethiopia you can’t just attend any church, everyone goes to their own denominational place of worship.

We walked to the right side of the church and came to a big painting of Mary holding Jesus. He knelt down, laid his head on a raised concrete slab and prayed.

I went round the church compound and came across several well-constructed “house” graves.

“We bury our priests here,” he told me. I could not read the epitaphs though as they were in Amharic.

I also visited Sheshamane, a town 250km to the south of Addis Ababa in Oromia region, where I expected to see many dreadlocked people and thought marijuana was legal.

In the town, horse chariots race up and down the streets. Horses are the mode of transport for the poor people in Ethiopia; occasionally you come across a mule, and the donkeys too pass by with bales of straw. A horse costs about $100 in Ethiopia.

“Who lives in this town?” I asked my friend Bekele Kassa. “Both Ethiopians and Jamaicans; this place was donated to Jamaica by Emperor Haile Selassie.”

“Is marijuana legal in Sheshamane”? I asked on a light note.

“Marijuana is illegal in Ethiopia, and there is no exception in Sheshamane,” Dr Kassa replied.

And so there was no marijuana served, but instead juice and fruit salad characterised my visit to Sheshamane.